DANVILLE, Va. – James Edward Fultz, IV was sentenced Monday to life plus ten years for the January 2021 stabbing death of Danville cab driver Wendy Harris.

It took a jury less than 30 minutes to convict Fultz of murder and robbery in Harris’ death. The verdict came in early January at the end of Fultz’s day-long trial in Danville Circuit Court.

Fultz, 47, was charged with fatally stabbing the 51-year-old Harris on the night of January 12. Harris was found inside her cab on Gay Street. She was slumped over the steering wheel and had suffered stab wounds to her head and neck. Harris died at the scene.

Fultz fled before police arrived, but investigators tracked him to Temple Avenue, where he was arrested following a short foot chase, during which he dropped the manual from the cab.

Fultz was the last person to ride in her taxi and jurors heard a tape of a telephone conversation with his fiancé in which Fultz admitted that he had killed someone that night. Fultz was the last person to ride in her taxi and the prosecution maintained he robbed Harris to get money for drugs.

Warrants indicate that Fultz and Harris got into a dispute about money before she was stabbed six times.

The jury found Fultz guilty of first-degree murder and robbery.

He was also charged with the December 27, 2021 robbery of Carter’s Quick Shoppe at 3103 West Main Street.

Christie Morris, an employee at Carter’s, said the robbery happened just a few hours after the store opened on the 27th, and that Morris took around $250 and some lottery tickets.

At the end of his sentencing hearing Monday afternoon, Fultz was ordered to serve life in prison for the first-degree murder charge and 50 years for the robbery, with 40 years suspended.